To increase the operating range of material handling vehicles, such as forklift trucks, it has been proposed to connect the fork assembly to the end of a telescopic boom pivotally mounted on the truck. Such arrangements are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,147,263 and 4,674,944.
To increase the reach of the fork assembly; that is, the transfer of the load in a horizontal direction relative to the truck, the telescopic boom disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,263 is mounted on a carriage which is slidably mounted on the truck chassis.
While these prior art forklift trucks have been satisfactory for their intended purpose, their construction and arrangement inherently limited the range and reach of the load handlers, not only for lifting loads to substantial heights, but also to below ground levels, and for reaching over obstacles encountered on the job site.
After considerable research and experimentation, the forklift truck of the present invention has been devised which increases the range and reach of the fork assembly beyond that obtainable by the prior art trucks.